By Jim Burns. CNS News.com
Senior Staff Writer. June 04, 2001
(CNSNews.com) - Cuba has launched a bid to play host to the 2012 Olympic
games, saying it wants to show the world how a small country can efficiently
organize the event without the commercialism that traditionally accompanies the
games.
"Wealthy nations allow an exaggerated amount of commercialism that
overshadows the event that's established to promote amateur sports," said
Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Fernandez, the head of Cuba's Olympic Committee.
He told the official Castro government's newspaper "Granma" on Friday
that the policy of always letting wealthy nations host the Olympics is
unacceptable.
The Cuban American National Foundation is laughing at the idea of Cuba vying
with eight other cities for the honor of hosting the Olympic games in 2012.
"We have a certain measure of disbelief. This is a country that can't
afford to feed its people through its clinging to failed policies, and now it
thinks that it could mount a serious enterprise to host the Olympics." CANF
Executive Vice President Dennis Hayes said.
However, Hayes thinks there is a possibility that the 2012 Olympics could be
held in a "democratic," post-Castro Cuba.
"One thing that is required is an infrastructure and Havana has no
infrastructure to even contemplate even something like this. Castro should worry
about delivering food and freedom to his people instead of wasting his time on
efforts like this," Hayes said.
Eight American cities are bidding for the 2012 games. They include
Washington-Baltimore, New York, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Cincinnati and
Tampa.
The International Olympic Committee is expected to make a decision in 2005.
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